The Chicago Tribune has published today a provocative, and well-researched article about a number of Election 2004 concerns. All without a single mention of the word "blog", "leftwing" or "conspiracy theory"!

A detailed analysis by the Tribune of voter rolls in a number of states has revealed several notable concerns. (NOTE TO NY TIMES, BOSTON GLOBE and NEWSWEEK: An "analysis" is what investigative reporters sometimes do prior to announcing there is nothing worth investigating. NOTE TO BRAD BLOG READERS: Click on any of those links to find out how you can help encourage those outlets to do their job!)

Among the concerns revealed by the Tribune report published today:

FLORIDA: 64,889 dead people remained on the voters rolls on Election Day despite being listed in a database of Social Security Administration death claims.

MICHIGAN: 50,051 dead people remained on the voters rolls on Election Day.

NEW MEXICO: 5,000 dead people remained on the voter rolls on Election Day. The presidential election there was decided by 6,000 votes.

IOWA: 4,900 dead people were on Iowa's voter rolls on Election Day. Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes.

More than 181,000 dead people in total were listed on the voter rolls in the six swing states of Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and New Mexico.

Thousands more voters were registered to vote in two different places, which could have allowed them to cast more than one ballot.

OHIO: More than 90,000 ballots were discarded for including no valid choice for President either because no candidate was chosen, the counting machine failed to register their choice or they voted mistakenly for more than one candidate. Bush's "official" margin of victory in Ohio now stands at 119,000 after provisional and overseas ballots have been added to Election Night numbers which originally showed a margin of 136,000 votes.

The FBI has confirmed they are investigating the complaints made by Florida congressional candidate Jeff Fisher (partially discussed in this previous BRAD BLOG article) concerning vote-rigging in the state of Florida and elsewhere.

The BRAD BLOG congratulates the Chicago Tribune's Geoff Dougherty, Sarah Frank and the other "Tribune staff reporters" who contributed to this investigative analysis of America's democratic voting system. All are to be commended for doing the job for which they are paid, and for which so many in this country and the world desperately rely upon to provide a check and balance to those in the unchecked and corrupt corridors of power.